Roots - The Complete Collection (Roots / Roots - The Next Generations)

Roots - The Complete Collection (Roots / Roots - The Next Generations)

starring: LeVar Burton List Price: $119.98 Amazon.com's Price: $80.49 You Save: $39.49 (33%) as of 11/24/2009 09:39 EST Used Price: $44.92 Collectible Price: $159.95 Third Party New Price: $29.99 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Brand: Warner Brothers EAN: 0085391150664 Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Languages:EnglishOriginal Language Manufacturer: Warner Home Video MPN: WARD115066D Number Of Items: 10 Publisher: Warner Home Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: October 09, 2007 Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: February 18, 1979 Related Items: Alex Haley's Queen Sally Hemings: An American Scandal A Woman Called Moses The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman Shaka Zulu - The Complete 10 Part Television Epic see more Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: No Description Available. Genre: Television Rating: NR Release Date: 9-OCT-2007 Media Type: DVD Amazon.com: From the moment the young Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton) is stolen from his life and ancestral home in 18th-century Africa and brought under inhumane conditions to be auctioned as a slave in America, a line is begun that leads from this most shameful chapter in U.S. history to the 20th-century author Alex Haley, a Kinte descendant. The late Haley's acclaimed book Roots was adapted into this six-volume television miniseries, which was a widely watched phenomenon in 1977. The programs cover several generations in the antebellum South and end with the story of "Chicken" George, a freed slave played by Ben Vereen whose family feels the agony of entrenched racism and learns to fight it. Between the lives of Kunta and George, we meet a number of memorable characters, black and white, and learn much about the emotional and physical torments of slavery, from beatings and rapes to the forced separation of spouses and families. Nothing like this had ever confronted so many mainstream Americans when the series was originally broadcast, and the extent to which the country was nudged a degree or two toward enlightenment was instantly obvious. Roots still has that ability to open one's eyes, and engage an audience in a sweeping, memorable drama at the same time. --Tom Keogh Roots rocked the cultural landscape in the late '70s, creating a new wave of awareness of black history. That wave opened the door for its sequel, Roots: The Next Generations, even more of a star-studded event than the original, with stars like Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda, Marlon Brando, and James Earl Jones eager to partake in the tale. The sequel follows the rest of the saga of the family of author Alex Haley, from where Roots ended at the Civil War, up to the 1970s when Haley was researching and writing his earth-shattering family story. While nothing can rival the power of the original Roots' unflinching look at the slave trade and slave life in the early years of this country, the sequel is still full of rich African American history, from Reconstruction, to Jim Crow, to the civil rights movement and the early rumblings of black power. Fonda and de Havilland are respectable in their period-piece roles, but the real power of this sequel is in the more immediate concerns of Haley and his own experience of prejudice while building a stellar reputation as a writer and journalist in the '60s and '70s. One of the most unsettling scenes takes place then, when Haley interviews the head of the American Nazi Party, played with chilling diffidence by Brando. (Brando won an Emmy for this performance.) Haley is also challenged by his fractious interview with Malcolm X (a gripping Al Freeman Jr.). Jones launches his acting career playing Haley with nuance and heart, but with a humanizing set of his own demons. The four-disc set includes all seven episodes plus a compelling documentary, Roots: The Next Generations--The Legacy Continues, with interviews with Jones, costar and episode director Georg Stanford Brown and a still starry-eyed David L. Wolper, who understands the cultural impact of the two miniseries he helped bring to the screen. --A.T. Hurley Customer Reviews Average Rating: Rating: - so glad i got them tonight we watched the first video AS PART OF OUR FAMILY NIGHT TIME Everyone wanted to see the next vidio they are so awesome! Rating: - A very powerful story The truth can be hurtful and not all people are bad .Alex Haley had done the world a great deed in his research which was shared among mankind in various medium. This DVD set is a must see item for everyone.The world will be a better place if we learn from the mistakes made in the past and build on it to make a better future. Yes Family is important it is our Root. Rating: - late great review amazon would not let me review until the final shipped date but all is great with this seller Rating: - Wonderful story / Horrid seller. I found this to be a wonderful movie - very inspiring, well acted, everything a serial should be. I had read the book and was afraid that I might be disappointed in the film version but it was wonderful. I had watched it on TV in the '70's when I had a TV, and was still impressed with it. I was very let down with the condition of the discs as this was supposed to be a new set. Some were badly scratched and all had fingerprints on them. Two wouldn't play at all. Unfortunately to return it I would of had to of printed up a form and I don't have a printer. The seller stunk: Amazon was 100%. Not Amazon's fault I don't have a printer. Rating: - Roots - the complete collection The product was packaged beautifully but when viewing the CD they was a delay between the speaker and the sound so the quality was very bad in my opinion. I was very disappointed with the quality. see more